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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27545128">super superior ultra-mega rare limited soulmate card</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepy_ramtsun/pseuds/sleepy_ramtsun'>sleepy_ramtsun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A3! (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Attempt at Humor, Developing Relationship, F/M, First Meetings, Humor, I Tried, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, oh and toddler!juban as their children, slight crack, there's also maybe one paragraph of azusakyo if you squint</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:22:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,405</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27545128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepy_ramtsun/pseuds/sleepy_ramtsun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Soulmate AU where the first sentence that hear your soulmate say appear on your arm when as soon you’re born.</p><p>Whoever designed the soulmate system deserved a kick between the legs, because Izumi’s forearm was tattooed by a, <i>“Life is not 大丈夫.”</i></p><p>For the rest of her life, she was going to have a tattoo that was fucking referenced to a meme.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chigasaki Itaru/Tachibana Izumi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>69</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>super superior ultra-mega rare limited soulmate card</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Izumi’s soul mark was always a point of pride and confusion within the rest of her family.</p><p>For one thing, more than half of it was English and the rest was written in kanji for, “all right.”</p><p>Her mother would alternate between gushing and scratching at her head whenever she finds enough time to puzzle over Izumi’s soul mark with her, jokingly teasing her father about how a, <em>“handsome, young foreigner is going to sweep our baby’s heart one day,”</em> and <em>“he must have been a tourist that had gotten lost before meeting our darling Izumi!”</em> And she would watch how her father’s face contort into the weirdest of expressions before finally settling in to the one whenever he catches Izumi eating a cookie before diner, firmly advising her to stick close to Sakyo whenever she feels like exploring the streets and cities.</p><p>(She certainly did <em>not</em> see Sakyo nodding so gravely for a child while her father weaves a spiel on protecting Izumi from her, <em>“foreign, swindling-ass soulmate that probably didn’t have good intentions when they’ll meet his beloved child because I can’t even understand why they would say such words on their first meeting,”</em> or something like that.)</p><p>“Remember, Izumi,” her father had told her once though, before spiriting away like he was never there as soon as she turned old enough. “Communication is important between soulmates. So, don’t let the language barriers cause a rift between you two.”</p><p>And it would have been great, wonderful, <em>moving</em> even, as Izumi recalls the bits of advices and memories pertaining to her soul mark and future meeting with her soulmate. This concern, even Sakyo’s hovering and laser-focused glares on every stranger that approached her first would be worth it, <em>infinitely</em> bearable. All those moments and experiences, the way she had unabashedly shown her soul mark for the world to see, it was only but the beginning of something so uniquely hers and her soulmate to share with when they finally meet.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>If only it wasn’t an honest-to-god <em>meme.</em></p><p>What the actual fuck, destiny.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>There was a click on the door, before a familiar timbre coiling around a curse meets her ears. A faint patter of steps neared on her location in the dining table, before Sakyo’s silhouette graces her periphery.</p><p>“Happy birthday.”</p><p>Izumi blinks as her journal was swiped for a wonky-looking cake, the icing dripping down from the side and a truly atrocious set of characters that somehow read as, “happy birthday,” if she tilts her head a little to the left and squint. Across her, Sakyo sits down with the deepest of sighs.</p><p>His eyes look a little haunted.</p><p>“Everything okay at the fort?” she dares to quip, only to watch him grimace. “Yikes, guess Azuma really is the one that keeps everything together at home.”</p><p>“I’d like to see you wrangle two little hellions that were hellbent on making the best cake for your birthday,” Sakyo huffs, leaning back against the chair. “Fuckin’ little shits just about destroyed the kitchen because Banri wanted to see who’s better.”</p><p>“Where are they now?” she muses, a little worried to the two budding delinquent children. Juza and Banri were relatively civil on most times…well, if you’re counting on one hand, that is.</p><p>“Dropped them off at Sakoda’s before coming here.” Sakyo ruthlessly shot down her concerns without so much as a by-your-leave, making her shoot him a disapproving look. He remains unmoved, probably due to having one too many accidents caused by the troublesome duo. “It’s been seventy-six hours since I had to deal with them and I need to <em>sleep.”</em></p><p>“What about Azami?” Izumi inquires, tentatively reaching out to swipe an icing for a taste as she recalls the dark-haired teen that sometimes played with Banri and Juza at their place. Curiously enough, it was <em>good.</em></p><p>Heh, so even Sakyo took part in making this cake too.</p><p>Her blond-haired childhood friend shoots her a dry look. “That brat will just watch Banri and Juza set fire to the entire penthouse if only so he’ll get to see me pay for all the damages incurred.”</p><p>“O…kay,” Izumi prudently decides to retreat after seeing the dark look on Sakyo’s face, choosing not to mention the one time Azami soothed two teary-eyed children last week after they broke Sakyo’s favorite fountain pen and replaced it with the exact same one before he left, “well, the spare guest room’s open if you want to crash.”</p><p>“I’ll be up later so we can celebrate back at home with the kids,” Sakyo grunts, and without even hearing her reply, he trudges towards the hallway with a vaguely determined air.</p><p>“That man, seriously,” Izumi huffs as his form eventually disappears from sight, before finally regarding the cake with a helplessly fond look.</p><p>If Sakyo probably hadn’t dropped by with the cake, she might as well have forgotten that it was her birthday already.</p><p>Work was getting a little hectic nowadays.</p><p>But since she could clearly see Banri and Juza’s (and Sakyo’s) intentions on the surprisingly not-quite the disaster of cake, maybe it’s time for a rest.</p><p>Her eyes flitted towards the kitchen, before a certain thought brightens up her eyes.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Curry on her birthday and everything is as good as complete.</p><p>Twenty-five minutes later and Izumi finds herself browsing the nearest grocery store from her apartment, eyes flushed with eagerness as she waits out on the line towards the cashier. Occasionally, she’ll spy curving marks of, <em>ugh, gross</em> and the many, <em>nice to meet yous</em> and <em>what?</em> on the people around her, their respective soul marks shown towards the world while there were some that covered their own. And if she squints hard enough, she could find some surprising ones like, <em>what the flying fuck are you eating</em> that probably preludes to one truly memorable encounter. Although, those kinds are actually pretty rare to spot nowadays.</p><p>Soulmates have been around enough long enough that everyone sort-of established a conventional process, and it’s not Izumi would fault anyone that sticks to basic greetings and courtesy remarks when meeting new people or whenever they’re around in public places since it had the rippling effect of everyone generally trying to be kind to everyone else but well, there were some marks that were significant outliers in the system.</p><p>Really, at the heart of it all, no one can really stop anyone from saying what they want to say whenever they want. Recent dramas even started the trend of how the more unconventional the soul marks are, the truer the love of the soulmate pair or some stuff like that—and everyone actually ate them up…</p><p>Izumi, for one, liked to see them try waving a meme reference out for all the world to see without feeling the slightest bit of secondhand embarrassment and cringe.</p><p>It should be noted that this, was not the first time, she was exasperated by the idea of her soulmate based from her soul mark.</p><p>“Ah, sorry Itaru-san.”</p><p>Her thoughts were cut off by the faintly apologetic tone coming from her left, following by a young, maroon-haired teen accompanying a disgruntled-looking light-haired businessman. The younger was wheeling in a grocery cart as their line shuffled forward, the other seemingly trudging on his feet as he casts a frown on his phone.</p><p>The sharpness of his clothes matched poorly with his current mien, which seems to be related to the fidgeting teen beside him as he gazed anxiously at the older man.</p><p>“Maybe it’s just not my day?” the boy tries to offer.</p><p>The man remains silent.</p><p>“Though, it’s kinda weird that I didn’t get to pull one good card out of the pull I did,” the younger male murmurs to himself, making Izumi wonder just how much a card would matter enough for the man to look like the epitome of despair. And at a grocery nonetheless.</p><p>Maybe he lost a cred—</p><p>The light-haired business man turns his head to look at the teen with the gravity of someone that experienced a significant loss at three P.M., on a Wednesday afternoon, in the middle of a grocery store and opens his mouth.</p><p><em>“Life is not</em> <strong><em>daijoubu.”</em></strong></p><p>Her mouth curves a bit as she recalls the bits of meme images she had seen that she could relate to, before her brain abruptly screeches into a halt.</p><p>. . .</p><p>. .</p><p>.</p><p>“You!” Izumi yells, voice catching on the attention of the nearby patrons and the people in question as she points an utterly rude finger towards the blonde-haired man.</p><p>It was the sheer, melancholic tone, the absolute misery and abject despair that embodied the <em>thousands </em>of memes that featured her thrice be damned soul mark but in romaji instead but the difference was in the characters, all wrapped up into this pitifully-looking businessman saying the exact words as if it was just a casual day-to-day conversation. Word for word, language for language.</p><p>As if referencing a <em>meme</em> on broad daylight was enough of a pass for the universe to determine that oh, this was her soulmate.</p><p>As Izumi wasn’t just cringing yet again from the memories of her childhood about her soul mark after spotting so many marks out in the open.</p><p>
  <em>As if Izumi hadn’t also just realized that she blurted out her first statement to her already and it only consisted of a single word.</em>
</p><p>“Yes?” the older man blinks as he turns his gaze to meet hers, the miasma of despair disappearing quickly in favor of distant indifference despite her rude behavior. “What’s wrong?”</p><p>But she was having none of it.</p><p>“It’s you!” Izumi was determined to get her point across, leaving her basket on the ground while she stalks forward the duo with all the intent of giving her soulmate a piece of her mind because what the actual <em>fuck,</em> hearing her soul mark actually sounds worse that reading it on her arm. “What the hell’s your problem saying things like that out in the open, huh? Don’t you know how much I had to suffer because of you?”</p><p>Finally, a ripple of unease breaks the unflappable mask of this, “Itaru-san’s” face. “Uh, I think you got the wrong—”</p><p>“Of all the things you had to say,” Izumi interrupts him still, irate and filled with exasperation that was built over the years of knowing the entire context of her own soul mark<em> because goddammit just…<strong>why?</strong></em> “Why did you have to choose <em>this?”</em></p><p>She lifts up the sleeves of her sweater to present the soul mark, all but shoved it into his face as she glares at him.</p><p>Izumi watched his eyes quickly flicker across her skin as he reads the mark, before comprehension dawns in his eyes. Beside him, the kind-looking teen was staring at them with bright, shiny eyes.</p><p>Eagerly, she waits for him to open his mouth, anticipation building up in her gut.</p><p>“So, you’re the one, huh?” A bright, confident smile freezes her in place, as rose-colored eyes curved upwards with a bright gleam. The annoyance melts away when she also belatedly realized that maybe her soulmate was a little more attractive while he smiles than Izumi had thought, cheeks pinkening faintly under his gaze as her heart thumps a little bit faster.</p><p>“Itaru-san” breaks his stare first, flickering briefly to stare at his covered left arm where his own soul mark (with Izumi’s embarrassingly brief, statement) likely lies before returning to regard her with a profound look before letting out a quiet huff of laughter.</p><p>Izumi’s breath hitches in her throat.</p><p>“Can’t believe I got to meet you like this,” “Itaru-san” murmurs, smile widening as he slightly leans forward with a quieter voice saying, “hey, can you do something for me?”</p><p>Her mind turns into <em>overdrive.</em></p><p>“W-Wha—”</p><p>“All you need is to press this button right he—”</p><p>“Itaru-san!” the maroon-haired boy splutters as he stares aghast at the older man, eyes filled with disbelief. “What are yo—”</p><p>“I’m just going to confirm something, Sakuya,” Itaru was still smirking, eyes lidding ever so slightly as he turns back to stare at Izumi. “You’ll do it, won’t you?”</p><p>Izumi blinks, flushing a little harder as she struggles not to be too affected by his stare.</p><p>“Uh, sure…?”</p><p>Somehow, she has a bad (?) feeling about this.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Wow, I got all the event cards <em>and </em>their spares on one pull!”</p><p>Thirty minutes later finds Izumi sitting in one of the steel chairs at the food court, watching dumbly as Chigasaki Itaru cheers across her.</p><p>“He’s not usually like this,” Sakuma Sakuya, as the maroon-haired boy was called, tried to reassure her, but even his voice doesn’t sound the slightest bit convincing.</p><p>“I still don’t understand,” Izumi was pretty sure that the compressed summary of what Itaru was getting her to do was not as helpful as he had insisted it to be. After quickly paying for their groceries and escaping some curious looks aimed at them due to Izumi’s outburst, they made a stop on the food court to have some…“talk.” Though, it was more like an explanation to most of her soulmate’s game before pressing the button that would give him like ten pictures after spending a certain amount of ah, <em>in-game currency</em>. Izumi was still reeling from the course of events that had occurred while Itaru looks the happiest that he can be after making her press so many buttons all at once, eyes sparkling with abject glee. “What could be so exciting on getting an image from a game?”</p><p>At that, Sakuya’s smile turns a little strained. “Ah, I’m not sure my answer’s gonna be of help. But he’s a good person, Izumi-san!”</p><p>And looking at Itaru’s unabashedly joyful look as he stares at his phone, uncaring of how his clean-cut businessman attire was crumpled from various places due to his movements from his seat across the table, Izumi finds herself relaxing and nodding at Sakuya’s words. The way his eyes were bright with pure cheer and wonder as his thumbs move around his screen, Izumi thinks that maybe the soulmate system deserve a little more rights.</p><p>“Yeah, I think so too.”</p><p>Itaru still had to make it up to her for having a meme as a soul mark, though.</p><p>But disaster of a first-impression aside, maybe this was the best gift that Izumi had been given for today other than looking forward to eating curry and spending time with Sakyo’s bustling little family.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>kinda rushed at the end bc i'm sleepy and i didn't have time to proofread but as promised, i finished my first itaizu fic!! don't know if i should expound more on this but tell me your thoughts? thank you for reading &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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